After a rough couple of years of not performing publicly, things were finally getting back to some sort of “normal.” Enough work to keep food on the table in a place we love, and a good start to building the season up. Honestly, we couldn’t be happier - beans and rice included.

The tech side of our lives, however, set on to give us a bumpy landing in St. Martin, and one that may intrinsically change how we interact on the internet entirely. As independent artists, a presence and following on the web is basically required reading, and without it in this day and age, it is a chore to even book a show in a coffee shop. It is nearly the centerpiece of your work in a way - the link between you and your website to your fans, present, and future.

We sailed to St. Martin just in time to make our first show. Cleared in at 4 p.m and straight to the venue for a 7 p.m hit. It was just like old times, before COVID-19 when sailing throughout the Caribbean was a breeze. Definitely got our blood boiling.

The following day, though, we found that we were the victims of a second hack through Facebook, this time disabling the pages for Stell & Snuggs, our charter business, and our publishing company in one fell swoop - basically the presence of every entity essential to our livelihoods on that platform. Monies were taken through our business/ ads account, and we had to file a fraud charge against Facebook to get them returned. Many of us have heard how difficult is to contact an actual person with Facebook; we were quick to learn that the platforms’ main approach to customer service and security is avoidance. Our profiles and access were disabled. That’s one button that needed to be pushed.

As for the access to all of the content and connections we have built over the years, it is most likely gone. This was the second time we’ve been through this, the first in August via Stell’s personal account. The scenario was identical, the outcome the same. Zero communication through Facebook, even though finances were taken. Somehow Facebook will talk to the bank, but simply can’t find the time to have any sort of discussion with their clients. The content through that account has already been deleted, and as stated before, this next round looks to be much the same. 

We never bought “likes” or “followers” - we actually knew each and every one of the 2500 individuals that we were connected with on that platform. The fact that it is gone has been a subject of much frustration up until this past week - where we now have come to see it as an opportunity.

The truth is, we have realized that because our music lies in such a niche, we are more than likely better off staying away from the likes of “Meta.” We started using these platforms in 2006 before they were the advertising behemoths they are today. As the negative impacts of platforms like this are becoming widely known - from increased instances of depression in users, complete lack of transparency by the parent companies, a zero-responsibility policy with regards to their business practices, and a new global grab in the Metaverse - it all spells for us an association with a platform with which we had been growing uneasy. While a presence on the platform seems required in the current construct of being an independent artist, at our level of engagement the platform not only sees us as a disposable user but all of those we are connected with as well. There was a life before all of this, and there must be another way. Essentially, we are a cheap commodity for Facebook, not even important enough for correspondence regarding a hack to our bank accounts from their platform.

You can save all of your Facebook data by doing this:

• Tap your photo picture on the top right hand side.

• Scroll down and hit “Settings”

• Scroll down to “Facebook Information” and hit “Download Your Information”

• Tap “Create File” to confirm the download request

• After your request, you may need to wait a couple of days for your downloaded Facebook file.

We’ve already felt the impacts - venues, especially here in the Caribbean, rely heavily on Facebook in particular for the promotion of events. While our relationships are still strong with our old haunts, engaging new venues is proving slightly difficult…as far as some can see, Stell & Snuggs doesn’t exist!

Do we need to run back to Facebook and create new profiles and business pages? Is existing without them even possible in 2022? If we don’t, how definitively is that going to affect our “bottom line?” But then we remember these things we call “websites”, you know, the things that we actually pay to keep up and running. The place where we are in control of the content. The place that platforms like Facebook don’t want you to visit while online.

No ads. No data mining. No behavior modification and psychology. Just us and our music, and it feels so good…

While there are some question marks on how we will ultimately restructure our online presence, one thing is for certain - it will all come back here to our online “home.” We’ve been given an opportunity to get away from being lab rats, running for the piece of cheese when we hear the “like” ding for a new post. We’ll stop being part of a machine that is making windfalls of money for people we will never meet, and a business that refuses to accept responsibility for the poor security of our personal information. 

We’ve woken from a dream where we are connected to “the world,” when in reality we were only in connection with the people that Facebook’s algorithms wanted us to be in connection with. It is a bus driver whose route is ever-changing and unknown, and once it sets off on its’ journey no one, even the people at Facebook, are truly in control of what it does. What we do know is it creates a different online “reality” for each user based on their actions. Seems like a great idea on paper, but I hope we can agree it’s not working out so well in reality.

These two little blips from one platform required us to change bank cards, change passwords for every site and account we use, lose many many hours of work creating content, videos and posts for over 10 years, and unfortunately losing some connections with individuals permanently. The convenience of the thing came and bit us in the rumps good and hard, but now that we are on the outside looking in we realize how draining it truly was, and for very little reward outside the dopamine rush you get from your little notification sounds. 

Rather than feed the platform and it’s owners, we have decided to go back to feeding ourselves, and hope that in turn gets a better connection with all of you that have supported us over the years.